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Penal Chamber president: Jail corrupt politicians

Claiming that millions of taxpayers dollars are being used up with no accountabity, Penal Debe Chamber of Commerce president Rampersad Sieuraj yesterday called for corrupt politicians to be jailed.

In his controbution to a pe-budget breakfast forum at Powergen in Penal, Sieuraj said: “No longer are we to say heads must roll. No longer shouldwe accept firing someone as good. It is time that we demand that anyone found guilty of abuse of office, nepotism, corruption . . . lack of transparency and accountability be jailed.

He asked: “Are you satisfied with the spending of your billions of dollars, for example with the Ministry of National Security and the Ministry of Education?

“Governments work for no money. They spend my and your money and it is time that we recognise and acknowlege that these people must be held accountable for the state of this country.”

Addressing an audience which included students from Parvati Girls Hindu College and Iere High School, Sieuraj also lashed out at corporate bodies who ignored the chamber’s requests to sponsor the forum.

He praised Scotiabank and Republic Bank for their sponsorship but added: “The other corporate citizens—and if I may say as we have heard in recent times that element of the one per cent population—had not even seen it fit to acknowlege our correspondence. I point out that to all with a level of regret simply because of the fact that I emphasised that our focus here are the students and I thought that our corporate citizens would have seen it necessary to invest in our students and make this thing a success.

Other contributors at the forum included former ministers Bhoendradatt Tewarie and Mariano Browne and economist Vaalmikki Arjoon